


Apparitions

by Inkyrius



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Pre-Canon, ToT: Monster Mash, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-06 18:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12216123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkyrius/pseuds/Inkyrius
Summary: Mokuba hadn’t even lived in the Kaiba mansion for a week when he first learned it was haunted.





	Apparitions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FleetSparrow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/gifts).



Mokuba hadn’t even lived in the Kaiba mansion for a week when he first learned it was haunted.

It was already clear that Gozaburo didn’t care about him. Seto was the one who’d beaten him, and Seto was the one who’d take over the company someday. Mokuba was just an unfortunate condition for Seto’s cooperation. As long as Mokuba didn’t cause trouble, Gozaburo was content to ignore him.

Mokuba spent the first few days terrified. Even at the orphanage, he was used to having his big brother around to take care of him, and now they barely saw each other. Servants came by to check on him occasionally, bringing him lessons or telling him it was time for bed, but he was mostly left to fend for himself. He could only play by himself for so long.

After just a few days of confinement, though, his fear gave way to boredom. Even the big rooms of the mansion could only hold so much of interest. Without someone else to entertain him, he went through them all far too quickly.

That’s when he realized that his isolation came with benefits. If adults didn’t come up to this floor very often, he could totally go exploring without anyone noticing and getting him in trouble. There had to be something worthwhile in one of the other rooms.

He spent that evening bouncing with excitement. Seto was at supper that night, and Mokuba could barely keep from telling him. He didn’t want Gozaburo to suspect anything, though.

He wished they could talk alone. Seto looked really tired lately, and Mokuba knew that hearing about his plan would have cheered him up for sure.

Before he went to bed that night, he prepared his adventuring gear, so he wouldn’t have to waste any time the next morning. He wasn’t entirely sure what you brought to explore a house, though. He settled on some paper and crayons. All good adventurers made maps to show where they’d been, and this way he could show it to Seto later.

Getting to sleep felt like it took forever, but then he opened his eyes and it was morning. He raced to get dressed as quickly as possible before heading out into the unknown.

The hallway was the same as always, but without anyone making him keep moving, he was able to get a better look. He marked each door he passed carefully, then peeked into the rooms behind them. Most of them were just boring bedrooms. They were still better than his rooms, though, even if they didn’t have any toys.

He’d just closed the door on the third identical guest room when he heard footsteps. He froze, ready to make his excuses, but no one came. He looked in the room again, but it was just as empty as when he’d left it. The footsteps stopped a moment later. He waited a little longer, but when nothing happened, he relaxed and went back to poking at things.

He was almost to the end of the hallway when he finally found something better than boring grown up rooms. As soon as he opened the door, he saw that this room had a bunch of shelves full of shiny rocks and other cool things. He flung the door the rest of the way open, ran inside, and found an arm lying on the floor.

The arm was twisted and charred, barely recognizable as having once belonged to a human being. It cut off abruptly at the elbow. There was no blood surrounding the wound, but that was a small comfort.

Mokuba’s crayons hit the floor. He wanted to run, but his legs refused to cooperate. He did the next best thing and burst into tears.

He was so absorbed in his own terror that he almost didn’t notice the figure rising from beneath the floorboards. It stared at Mokuba, its eyes sunken and accusatory, then sighed. “You are not the one who did this to me.”

Mokuba’s only response was to wail even louder.

The stranger leaned down to pick up his arm. He glanced at Mokuba again before fading into thin air.

Mokuba kept crying until Hobson arrived to make him quiet down. He was almost grateful for the punishment, because at least it got him away from the monster. The only problem was that he wasn’t allowed to eat that day, which meant he didn’t get a chance to see Seto. Mokuba didn’t know if even Seto could make him feel safe again, but it would be better than being alone again.

That was pretty much the end of Mokuba’s attempts to explore the mansion. Even once his initial panic had faded and he needed something to do, he focused his efforts on escaping the building without attracting attention. He felt much better when he was away from the mansion and whatever evils it contained.

Not that that was his last encounter with the paranormal. He was still the only resident of the third floor, and every now and then he’d walk into a room only to find it occupied by a ghost. He tried to treat them like bad horror movie effects. They were scary, but they wouldn’t hurt him. Mostly they just looked at him and vanished.

There was no point in bringing it up to anyone. The servants had no power, Mokuba hardly got to see Seto anymore, and Gozaburo didn’t take kindly to what he’d see as an attempt to deceive him.

By the time Seto took over the company, ghosts had faded into the background noise of Mokuba’s life. He never even considered mentioning it to Seto now that he had a chance. After all, their lives were good now. Everything was good. After all, Mokuba had the high score on every game in the arcade, and what else could that be?

And then it all came crashing down. Mokuba was locked in a box to be eaten by his own monsters, and then Seto was locked into his own brain to be eaten by his demons, and Mokuba could barely keep himself moving from day to day. He wasn’t sure he’d notice a ghost if he came across one. He was acutely aware that there were worse things in the world.

He didn’t really get a chance to slow down and breathe until after Battle City. The tournament had left him with ghosts on the mind, for obvious reasons, and that’s when he realized that the number of ghosts in the mansion seemed to have gone down. He’d grown accustomed to encountering them every month or so, but now that he was paying attention, he hadn’t seen any since Duelist Kingdom.

He gave it another few weeks, but when it stayed quiet, he began to seek them out. He ventured into the parts of the mansion that had been abandoned since Gozaburo’s death. Seeing Gozaburo’s belongings sent chills down his spine, but for decidedly not-supernatural reasons. There was no sign of anything more.

Staring at a shelf of trinkets, Mokuba thought about his first encounter with any of the manor’s ghosts. It had had a clear target in mind, a concrete reason for existing. He thought about the work Seto had been doing to turn the company around. Kaiba-land was just a theme park now, and the Kaiba name made people think about games before anything else.

He thought about seeing his brother smile more in the past few months than he had in several years.

Mokuba thought about all of that, then he made up his mind. He left the crypt that Gozaburo’s office had become and went to find his brother. The ghosts could stay in the past where they belonged.


End file.
